A letter to the residents on the eve of Election Day

Dear voters,

We are down to the last two days of this chaotic election. I have been tirelessly campaigning since the first day of May and have had the privilege of meeting thousands of Beaches - East York residents and hearing about their concerns. Together, we can resolve these issues and make Toronto a more inclusive and affordable city with a robust small business sector and world class multimodal transit system. We know how to solve many of these issues already, and just need someone with the political will and energy to move the solutions forward; others are more complicated and require careful consultation and thoughtful community engagement. My experience implementing environmental policy in the private sector, using project management principals, positions me as the most qualified candidate for Beaches – East York.

It has been a long campaign, but I have enjoyed it thoroughly! I see other candidates talking about what they have given up to run and how hard it is. I don’t understand this, while I did leave my career (and accepted the financial impact of that) and have been putting in 16 to 20 hour days for the past few months it has been one of the most positive and rewarding experiences of my life! I am reminded of Mark Twain’s famous quote: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

When you go to the polling station tomorrow, vote for someone with a proven track record of rigorous data-driven analysis and project management who is not beholden to political ideology or political insiders. Vote for Valérie Maltais!

I want to close with another famous quote, from “Total Quality Management” champion Edwards Deming: “Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.” We are in uncertain times and we need someone with a steady hand, that can drive evidence-based policy forward.